In article <dfrg7q$fol$1 at smc.vnet.net>, David Bailey
<dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk> wrote:
> Manuel Schmidt wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > does somebody know, what hardware is best for a huge mathematica
> > calculation, that needs lots of memory?
> > I think of minimum 8GB memory and the fastest possible processors
> > (probably opterons???).
> >
> > However, it should be a personal computer.
> >
> > Is it better to run it under Linux or Windows?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Manuel Schmidt
> >
> Hello,
>
> Really, that is equivalent to the question "How long is a piece of string".
>
> One thing that is important is that if you are going to get 8GB of
> memory, you must make sure you install the 64-bit version of Windows (or
> whatever) and the 64-bit version of Mathematica - otherwise, most of
> that memory will just sit there idle.
>
> I would tend to go for Opterons, if only because AMD took a big risk in
> introducing a rational 64-bit architecture and forcing Intel to follow
> them - they deserve to get the business!
>
> Before spending a lot of money, it may be worth getting someone to look
> at your code because it is very easy to write Mathematica code that
> works, but is horrendously inefficient.
How long--and how wide :-)
I have the fastest AMD chip in existence, the FX-55 (unless the FX-57
is now available), but I couldn't find a mother board that could take
more than 4GB of RAM. (And if I put that much in, it would only see
3GB of it--a limitation of the bridge chip.)
Also, does even Linux x86-64 allow 8GB without tweaking?
--Ron Bruck